Vodafone teams up with music service Spotify

Network to offer music strealing to customers

Chris Bevington, director of global strategic partnerships for Spotify and Marcel de Groot, consumer director with Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone Ireland and Spotify have announced an exclusive partnership in the Irish market. Photograph: Naoise Culhane.
Chris Bevington, director of global strategic partnerships for Spotify and Marcel de Groot, consumer director with Vodafone Ireland. Vodafone Ireland and Spotify have announced an exclusive partnership in the Irish market. Photograph: Naoise Culhane.

Vodafone Ireland has teamed up with music streaming company Spotify to bring the service to its mobile customers.

The new offering will see Spotify’s premium service, which allows users to play songs from the service on the mobile devices, offered to both customers on Vodafone’s Red plans, and the Pay as You Go plans.

This is not the first time Vodafone has offered music services to its customers; previously, the company operated its own music store that allowed users to download tracks to their mobile phones.

“We believe streaming is a game changer in the music industry,” Vodafone’s commercial director Marcel de Groot said.

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The move comes as Vodafone rolls out its high speed 4G mobile network around the country. However, Mr de Groot said the service would not be dependent on 4G, with the operator’s 3G network more than up to the task.

For bill pay customers, the service will be bundled with the Vodafone Red plans, which will cost from €40 per month. Those on Pay as You Go plans will get the service for €9.99, with an additional 250MB data allowance thrown in.

However, Mr de Groot said the service would also be available to customers on other plans for €9.99, which would also get them 150MB of extra data. “We value our customers highly,” he said.

The partnership is being backed by a €1.5 million marketing campaign.

Spotify, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary in Ireland, has more than 24 million active users throughout the world, with a catalogue of more than 20 million songs.

The move marks yet another partnership for Spotify, which has done deals with 25 telecoms operators and ISPs worldwide.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist